Our club has a goalkeeper shortage for our mid-teen teams, especially on the girls side. How can we curb the dropout rate at that position and keep
young keepers enthusiastic?

This is an excellent question and a problem that unfortunately frequently happens in youth soccer. As kids get older they begin to recognize the
pressure and blame that keepers receive and thus do not want to play in goal.

How do we get players to embrace the goal at an early age and stay with it? It starts with
selection.

We need to select keepers who have the physical and psychological components that make up a successful keeper. No player wants to be played at a position that he or
she will fail at. There is no joy in playing a position that you are not equipped to play.

Everyone, no matter what they do in life, wants to be successful and if we find something we are
good at we tend to stick with it. Goalkeeping is no different.

Coaches need to identify players that possess the size, strength, agility, quickness, power and eye-hand coordination to play
the position. Once we have identified the physical attributes we need to move to the psychological component.

Psychologically they must first have some interest and desire to play the
position. Forcing players into the goal will never keep them there. They must be able to shake of disappointment, handle pressure, lead their teammates, and enjoy the position and responsibility. And
they must be courageous. Scared goalkeepers will get hurt and leave the position.

Also crucial is that coaches and players understand more fully the role of the keeper and have
realistic expectations on what they can do to help the team -- that it takes an entire team to ensure the goalkeeper has success.

Too often the keeper is blamed for a goal that was
really conceded by poor defending by the team. As coaches we need to educate players and parents as to why goals are scored and that it is the result of a team breakdown not the sole responsibility of
the keeper. This is vital as peer pressure leads to many keepers quitting because they are tired of being blamed for goals.

A key way to keep players in goal is respect. Many
times the keepers at the young ages don't receive the same committed training to enhance their development that field players do. How many times do we see the team training with the coach and the two
keepers off to the side to work themselves out before joining the team?

There is no way we can develop a goalkeeper like this. Yet we all expect them to perform at a highly skilled level
come game day. Clubs and teams need to a designated keeper trainer to work with all the keepers in the club on their skill development as well as their psychological development.

The
keeper sessions need to be held weekly and address the different levels of the keepers in the club.

Goalkeeping involves skill development just like field players and thus we need coaching
to teach it, refine it, and critique it. If a keeper is properly trained and feels like an integral part of the team then he or she will have confidence and belief that they can succeed. Once they
find continued success and joy then they'll be hooked in goal and will love everything about it.

(Tim Mulqueen, author
of the "The Complete Soccer Goalkeeper:
Techniques & Tactics For Stopping Every Shot," is a U.S. Soccer Federation coach and instructor who has been goalkeeper coach for U.S. national teams at the U-17 World Cup, U-20 World Cup and
Olympic Games. He's been a goalkeeper coach in MLS, for the MetroStars, and the Kansas City Wizards when they lifted the 2000 league title. Mulqueen is the head coach of Chargers SC’s U-13/14
U.S. Soccer Development Academy team and Director of Sports of the Premier Sports Campus at Lakewood Ranch, Fla.)

In addition to trying harder to find the perfect physical, emotional, and mental makeup and increasing focused training, widening the net for potential keepers might be useful strategy for ensuring keeper numbers. For example, size is often overemphasized at the club level. Often, there is a trade-off between size and athleticism/agility. How many shortstops or secondbasemen do you see over 6 feet tall. In these athletic defensive positions, a la goalkeeping, quickness, range, and eye-hand coordination are for more important than height. A quick shorter GK can actually cover as much of the frame as a larger GK just with athleticsm - plus they are closer to the ground for low hard shots. Speaking of baseball (and softball for girls), being a full time GK can get a little mundane as a year round endeavor. There are a lot of talented athletes playing baseball/softball, basketball, volleyball, etc. Allowing, even encouraging, multi-sport development improves overall athleticsm, reduces injury by working more muscle groups and other parts of the body, keeps burnout in check, and offers a meaningful and productive outlet when pressure/blame start to mount in soccer. I believe there are a lot of young athletes who would love to play GK and be valuable additions to any club program wanting to keep their numbers up if they could be free to express and improve their athleticsm and competitiveness across multiple athletic endeavors...not just GK year round, year after year.